Three Loves (1929) User Reviews

Effective late silent , and Dietrich's first starring role

[genet-1 · 7/10 · 11 December 2009]

Known as THREE LOVES in the US and L'ENIGME in France, this late silent makes skillful use of limited resources to tell its story of guilty love and sexual obsession. The dreamy Charles Leblanc (Sima), about to marry into a wealthy steel-making family, glimpses Stascha (Dietrich) and her companion Karoff (Kortner) as they pause for a drink at a bar in his small southern France town. They meet again on the train taking him and his wife on their honeymoon. Overwhelmed by Stascha's sexuality, and ignoring his distraught new wife, Leblanc agrees to help her escape from the domineering Karoff. Later, she confesses that the two of them murdered her husband, and that the police are on their trail.

Stascha introduces Leblanc as her cousin to a menacing, incredulous Karoff , and the three check into a large alpine hotel where preparations are under way for a New Year's eve party and show. Stascha manipulates Leblanc and Karoff, playing them off against one other as the party becomes wilder, with a jungle of streamers, a conga line, high-kicking showgirls, and a huge clock face whose hands are periodically moved towards midnight.

Dawn finds Leblanc and Karoff slumped in chairs in the lobby, exhausted, while Stascha sleeps upstairs, the morning sun creeping up her silk-stockinged legs. At that moment, the police arrive, and trap the killers. Karoff draws a gun. Stascha catches his eye and nods slightly, giving permission for him to shoot her. As Karoff is led away, Leblanc is left cradling her body.

Those who believe Josef Von Sternberg created the Dietrich persona from scratch will be surprised by this film, in which Bernhardt uses some of the visual devices normally associated with Sternberg, particularly in the choreography of extras, and moreover shows Dietrich, in character and appearance, as somewhere between her earlier party-girl roles and the smoldering temptress of SHANGHAI EXPRESS. Though still plump and not yet blonde, she's made up with skill, showing off her expressive eyes and high forehead, while the camera frequently lingers on her beautiful legs.

Shot entirely on sets, the film seems cramped- the party can only manage a chorus line of two dancers - though Bernhardt makes effective use of montages, to evoke the steel-works, for instance. The film is mainly important as a glimpse of Dietrich just before the curtain rose on her international fame.

Frau Dietrich Already Existed And Was "Invented" By Herr Bernhardt Years Before Herr von Sternberg.

[FerdinandVonGalitzien · 7/10 · 24 December 2010]

Henri Leblanc ( Herr Uno Henning ), descendant of a bankrupted Industrialist family, marries a rich heiress in order to save the family firm. On the honeymoon, Herr Leblanc meets a mysterious woman on the train, Frau Stascha ( Frau Marlene Dietrich ) with whom he will fall desperately in love. He goes to ruin with her, leaving his wife on the train and fleeing with Frau Stascha to Cannes.

But Stascha, bound to Dr. Karoff ( Herr Fritz Korner ), especially needs the protection of Herr Leblanc due that fact that her relation with the Dr. is connected with the knowledge of a crime.

"Die Frau, Nach Der Man Sich Sehnt" (1929) ( "Three Loves" ), a film directed by Herr Curtis Bernhardt, it is a very remarkable oeuvre and certainly the best silent film made by Frau Marlene Dietrich.

Before this excellent film, Frau Dietrich was a cute and plump fraulein that had a not very impressive career in roles directed by different and sometimes important German directors. That's until Herr Bernhardt takes advantage of all of her true possibilities for the silent screen emphasizing those same traits that later Herr von Sternberg uses in a similar way for the sake and glory of Frau Dietrich.

At this point it is necessary for this German count to say that the work that Herr von Sternberg did with his most outstanding pupil wasn't at all entirely original and exclusive as evidenced in "Die Frau, Nach…", Herr Bernhardt did splendid work in the same artistic and dramatic parameters which, in turn, Herr Dietrich enhanced in the special atmosphere of the silent screen. In years later, it was for Herr von Sternberg to enlarge the talkie career of the Teutonic actress.

The great cinematography by the reputable Herr Curt Courant und Herr Hans Scheib, created those classic sculptured face shots of the actress amid shadows and enigmatic angles creating the paradigm of a "femme fatale". This shines especially in this mysterious love triangle drama. Thus results an "amour fou", perfectly developed in different sceneries with everything for the sake of Frau Dietrich. The film is an unconditional gift and a perfect vehicle for the Teutonic actress that certainly owes a lot to this film's construction in a manner that later became her personal and well-known iconic image.

But not only Frau Dietrich deserves attention in this film; the male main characters of the picture ( Herr Fritz Korner und Herr Uno Henning ) did excellent work too as two tormented lovers whose fascination and infatuation for Frau Stascha will bring them only misery and a doomed life.

The film transits between different sceneries. There are segments of the film that are very well defined and in continuity, developing the increasing passion and dramatism that brings the main characters of the film to life. These start with the industrialist images of the first part of the picture ( in those days, Germans liked a lot scenes of engines, pistons and steam… ) which are mechanical, emotionless and symbolic of Herr Leblanc's marriage of convenience. They continue to the uncontrolled passion that Herr Leblanc will experience in the train when he meets Frau Stascha via visualizing an era when the train was a romantic and unpredictable mean of transport... and had nothing in common with the aseptic and fast high-speed trains of nowadays. And at the party at the hotel during the night of the Holy Sylvester, the facts accelerate to the end of this peculiar tragic love triangle via a "in crescendo" film story in which the eroticism, drama and wild passion are depicted in a very remarkable and fascinating way.

"Die Frau, Nach Der Man Sich Sehnt" is an outstanding silent film that depicts one of those mad love stories than only can happen in silent films and confirms that Frau Dietrich already existed and was "invented" by Herr Bernhardt years before Herr von Sternberg.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must talk with Frau Dietrich about old German times.

The 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, David Jeffers for SIFFblog2

[rdjeffers · 12 July 2011]

Saturday July 16, 8.30pm, The Castro, San Francisco

A prince of industry abandons his bride when his head is turned by a mysterious and beautiful woman. Catching a glimpse of Staacha (Marlene Dietrich) through a train window, Henri LeBlanc (Uno Henning) is instantly bewitched. His resolve crumbles as she pleads for his help to escape her sinister travelling companion Dr. Karoff (Fritz Kortner). She only reveals the truth after Henri is hopelessly under her spell.

Based on Max Brod's original novel, The Woman Men Yearn For (1929) stars Dietrich the year before her breakout film The Blue Angel in a largely forgotten and surprisingly substantial role as the femme fatale with a twist. Excellent use of miniatures, industrial montage, spectacular costumes and the furious New Years Eve party are memorable. Director Curtis Bernhardt immigrated to Hollywood in 1940, establishing himself as a women's director in films starring Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and many others.

the same Dietrich, just younger and plumper

[mukava991 · 5/10 · 1 January 2011]

The Marlene Dietrich we all know was not created out of whole cloth by Josef von Sternberg; he simply refined the superlative raw material that was already there. And this film proves the point. As soon as Dietrich appears in this late silent melodrama the film belongs to her and stays that way despite excellent performances from strong actors such as Uno Hemming and Fritz Kortner. The story is about the heir to an ironworks fortune (Hemming, who looks like a cross between a young Laurence Olivier and Mel Ferrer), who, on the way to his honeymoon with a woman he doesn't love, locks eyes with Dietrich who is in a similar predicament (with Kortner). From that point the film is occupied with the ensuing love triangle.

The principals all end up at a mountain ski resort where events build to a climax during a New Year's Eve celebration, complete with streamers, balloons, masked revelers and confetti strangely reminiscent of key scenes in two later Dietrich-von Sternberg films, "Dishonored" and "The Devil Is a Woman," making one wonder if von Sternberg saw this film, liked the party scene and strove to improve upon it.

Dietrich is indeed on the plump side (as she was in "The Blue Angel"), but aside from such superficialities as extra pounds, fuller face and frizzy hair there is no significant difference between her effect here and in later Hollywood films. The allure is the same. It must be said that director Curtis Bernhardt makes a point of lingering over her shapely legs in a way that von Sternberg might have considered vulgar.

'The Heartbreak Kid' was Funnier

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 11 June 2017]

Max Brod disowned this sumptuous piece of hokum that retailored his 1927 novel as a vehicle for Marlene Dietrich. The elegant clotheshorse of her Paramount years is here already fully formed and she's already bringing out the worst in an assortment of drooling men. If Uno Henning went to the movies more often he'd have taken one good look at Dietrich's travelling companion Fritz Kortner and mustered sufficient common sense to return to his fresh-faced young bride and get his life back.

But, No. Instead, he and Kortner exchange icy pleasantries and glare at each other for the next hour while Dietrich changes into and out of a variety of stunning dresses and director Kurt Bernhardt ushers them through a succession of super-stylish set pieces (notably a New Year's Eve party) until finally three of the stupidest detectives since the Keystone Kops allow Kortner to produce and use a gun on Dietrich and then swiftly usher him down a back staircase without even checking if she's dead yet (she isn't). Mission accomplished, Henning then returns home, or to what will be left of it.

Not a film to long for

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 31 July 2017]

"Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt" is a German movie from 1929, so this one is from between the two big wars and it will have its 90th anniversary two years from now. On the poster you can see some of the big names from the cast and you could probably add Oskar Sima too. The director was Curtis Bernhardt and it is among his final German films as he fled the country when Nazis came to Power less than five years later. Writer Ladislaus Vajda is not unknown either and he adapted the Max Brod book for the screen here. The outcome is this 75-minute silent film and of course in the center of it all is Marlene Dietrich and she plays the title character, the woman men yearn for. Sadly, I must say I did not really see anything to yearn for in her performance and/or character and I believe she has made much more of an impression in other works acting-wise. Definitely not a coincidence that this is not only not anywhere near her most known works these days, but almost forgotten and pretty difficult to get a hand on. It is by no means a failure, but never reaches above mediocrity at any point with regards to basically all production components. I for one can only say I am somewhat glad it was a relatively short film as it had some lengths. Only the very biggest silent film fans or Marlene fans can give it a go. Everyone else skip it and they won't be missing much.